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Book Overview:

A gift set of the thirteenth and fourteenth Complete Peanuts volumes, in a handsome and durable slipcase. The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976: Good grief, Charlie Brown, we're halfway there! That’s right! With this volume, The Complete Peanuts reaches the halfway point of Charles M. Schulz’s astounding half-century run on the greatest comic strip of all time. These years are especially fecund in terms of new canine characters, as Snoopy is joined by his wandering brother Spike (from Needles), his beloved sister Belle (from Kansas City), and... did you know he had a nephew? In other beagle news, Snoopy breaks his foot and spends six weeks in a cast, deals with his friend Woodstock’s case of the “the vapors,” and gets involved in a heated love triangle with Linus over the girl “Truffles.” The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 features several other long stories, including a rare “double track” sequence with two parallel narratives: Peppermint Patty and Snoopy travel to participate in the Powderpuff Derby, while Charlie Brown finally gets to meet his idol Joe Shlabotnik. And Peppermint Patty switches to a private school, but commits the mistake of allowing Snoopy to pick it for her; only after graduation does she realize something’s not quite right! Plus: A burglary at Peppermint Patty’s house is exacerbated by waterbed problems... Marcie acquires an unwanted suitor... Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty become desk partners... The talking school building collapses... Lots of tennis jokes... and gags starring Schroeder, Lucy, Franklin, Rerun, Sally, and that vicious cat next door. It’s another two years of Peanuts at its finest! Featuring an introduction by comedian Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Saturday Night Live). The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978: As the 1970s wind down, the last two recurring Peanuts characters have fallen into place: Snoopy’s brother Spike and the youngest Van Pelt sibling, Rerun. But that doesn’t mean Schulz’s creativity has diminished; in fact, this volume features an amazing profusion of hilariously distinctive new one- (or two-) shot characters! For instance, in an epic five-week sequence, when Charlie Brown, found guilty by the EPA of biting the Kite-Eating tree, he goes on the lam and ends up coaching the “Goose Eggs,” a group of diminutive baseball players, Austin, Ruby, Leland, and —did you know there was a second Black Peanuts character, aside from Franklin?—Milo. Also: a tennis-playing Snoopy ends up reluctantly teamed with the extreme Type “A” athlete Molly Volley... who then reappears later in the book, now facing off against her nemesis, “Crybaby” Boobie. (Honest!) Add in Sally’s new camp friend Eudora, the thuggish “caddymaster” who shoots down Peppermint Patty and Marcie’s new vocation, an entire hockey team, and a surprise repeat appearance by Linus’s sweetheart “Truffles” (creating a love triangle with Sally), all in addition to the usual cast of beloved characters (including the talking schoolhouse and the doghouse-jigsawing cat, who gets ahold of Linus’s blanket in this one), and you’ve got a veritable crowd of characters. Introduction by 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin. It’s another four years of the greatest comic strip of all time, full of laughs and surprises. 1461 black-and-white comic strips

Book Review

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Comic Books A gift set of the thirteenth and fourteenth Complete Peanuts volumes, in a handsome and durable slipcase. The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976: Good grief, Charlie Brown, we're halfway there! That’s right! With this volume, The Complete Peanuts reaches the halfway point of Charles M. Schulz’s astounding half-century run on the greatest comic strip of all time. These years are especially fecund in terms of new canine characters, as Snoopy is joined by his wandering brother Spike (from Needles), his beloved sister Belle (from Kansas City), and... did you know he had a nephew? In other beagle news, Snoopy breaks his foot and spends six weeks in a cast, deals with his friend Woodstock’s case of the “the vapors,” and gets involved in a heated love triangle with Linus over the girl “Truffles.” The Complete Peanuts 1975-1976 features several other long stories, including a rare “double track” sequence with two parallel narratives: Peppermint Patty and Snoopy travel to participate in the Powderpuff Derby, while Charlie Brown finally gets to meet his idol Joe Shlabotnik. And Peppermint Patty switches to a private school, but commits the mistake of allowing Snoopy to pick it for her; only after graduation does she realize something’s not quite right! Plus: A burglary at Peppermint Patty’s house is exacerbated by waterbed problems... Marcie acquires an unwanted suitor... Charlie Brown and Peppermint Patty become desk partners... The talking school building collapses... Lots of tennis jokes... and gags starring Schroeder, Lucy, Franklin, Rerun, Sally, and that vicious cat next door. It’s another two years of Peanuts at its finest! Featuring an introduction by comedian Robert Smigel (Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Saturday Night Live). The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978: As the 1970s wind down, the last two recurring Peanuts characters have fallen into place: Snoopy’s brother Spike and the youngest Van Pelt sibling, Rerun. But that doesn’t mean Schulz’s creativity has diminished; in fact, this volume features an amazing profusion of hilariously distinctive new one- (or two-) shot characters! For instance, in an epic five-week sequence, when Charlie Brown, found guilty by the EPA of biting the Kite-Eating tree, he goes on the lam and ends up coaching the “Goose Eggs,” a group of diminutive baseball players, Austin, Ruby, Leland, and —did you know there was a second Black Peanuts character, aside from Franklin?—Milo. Also: a tennis-playing Snoopy ends up reluctantly teamed with the extreme Type “A” athlete Molly Volley... who then reappears later in the book, now facing off against her nemesis, “Crybaby” Boobie. (Honest!) Add in Sally’s new camp friend Eudora, the thuggish “caddymaster” who shoots down Peppermint Patty and Marcie’s new vocation, an entire hockey team, and a surprise repeat appearance by Linus’s sweetheart “Truffles” (creating a love triangle with Sally), all in addition to the usual cast of beloved characters (including the talking schoolhouse and the doghouse-jigsawing cat, who gets ahold of Linus’s blanket in this one), and you’ve got a veritable crowd of characters. Introduction by 30 Rock's Alec Baldwin. It’s another four years of the greatest comic strip of all time, full of laughs and surprises. 1461 black-and-white comic strips

…in the context of the work of a genius (who permanently revolutionized his field, in ways many of us are still only beginning to understand) the three-star comics of Charles Schulz are–on many days–far superior to the five-star works of lesser talents.

We all have our own opinions of which periods are essential. I’ll be satisfied with my boxed sets covering the years 1959 through 1978.

Fantagraphics Books deserve mention for this gloriously sumptuous publishing venture. Finally, Schulz’ oeuvre appears in a format suitably “serious” for groundbreaking art of its caliber. Not like when I was a kid and had fifty-odd paperbacks–in various states of disrepair–bursting from the confines of my bookcase and littering the floor.

With this set, the series goes well beyond the halfway point of its entire 50 year run. To own the first 14 volumes and then not bother with the forthcoming other 11 just seems stupid. Sort of like climbing half way up a mountain and saying, “The view doesn’t get any better, let’s go home.”

Sure, PEANUTS was the greatest comic strip of all time, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t declined over the years. Instead of relaunching old characters that faded away in time (Paty, Violet, Frieda and her cat, Shermy, Pig Pen, the Birds who got patted in the head) Schultz invented new ones that not only were redundant, they derailed the original formula to a wreck it never recovered.

“Rerun”, a Linus clone and a vehicle for baby gags once meant for Sally, was a minor hindrance, but Snoopy’s brother Spike was a costly mistake. The characters that followed didn’t -and couldn’t- add much after that. It’s not that they were bad, they merely weren’t great. And PEANUTS was expected to be great.

It wasn’t the end of the world, of course, it just was the beginning of the end for the strip. Other great strips have gone the same way -Dick Tracy, Lil’ Abner, Astérix, Bringing Up Father- …why should PEANUTS end different? Better to die along with its creator, than to remain a putrid zombie in ComixHell, drawn by a Press Syndicate slave for meagre profits.

Anyway, as a big fan of the strip, read it from the year Schroeder grew up, to when Peppermint Patty and Marcie (the last great characters) reigned supreme. After that, I wouldn’t. It’s like watching people you love on their way to the grave. It hurts.

If you are looking for a place to start a collection of these Fantagraphics volumes try the collections from the mid 50′s through to around 72. On the other hand if you have collected the others these are still most worthwhile. The difference is that these are quieter and in a lower key and volume. Lucy has quietened down and CB is not as anguished and hysterical. If you can believe David Michaelis author of ‘Schulz and Peanuts’ this is because Charles M was now happy in his second marriage and his first wife had been a model for Lucy in the 50′s and 60′s. OK so these are a bit less strident than the strips on which he made his reputation but they are still better than 95% of other people’s work. Peanuts changed constantly throughout it’s history and continues to change here. I for one will be glad to stay on board.